ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

October 14-16, 2024

Rome, Italy

Deadline: April 12, 2024

We are pleased to announce a workshop hosted by the German Historical Institute in Rome dedicated to exploring the rich and complex landscape of European film production, distribution and exhibition during the period of European Fascism from 1933 to 1945. Please submit your abstract (max 300 words), brief biography and contact details using this form by the submission deadline of 12 April 2024: https://forms.gle/yWuE94xQmLizSS199

CALL FOR PAPERS

A perennial problem in the history of cinema, “Film Europe” has remained a constant theme since the 1920s, both in practical, economic and political terms, and as a response to the cultural challenges of what “European cinema” is or should be. A decisive moment in the history of “Film Europe” as an idea and organizational effort was the establishment of the International Film Chamber (Internationale Filmkammer, IFK). Launched in 1935 to bolster a European film bloc to combat the international dominance of American films, the IFK resurfaced in 1941 under German and Italian control and swiftly became a tool for the expansion of these national industries. Membership included representatives of the film and commercial branches of various European and international countries. The IFK warrants further examination given that it served as a consultative body for European film industries and led discussions on production, exhibition, and distribution. Questions around the circulation of Nazi cinema are likewise intricately linked to the IFK: given the growing dominance of the German film industry and market at this time, IFK negotiations often revolved around the dissemination of German productions and questions of film import into the Reich. Our findings will therefore also provide the foundations for a large-scale future research project entitled “Nazi Film in Transit”.

We invite scholars from around the world to reevaluate the history and legacy of the IFK, its vision of “Film Europe” and its significance for the export and import of Nazi cinema. Our goal is to provide a platform for scholars to share research to develop our understanding of this period in European film history, as well as its significance for the pre- and post-war film industries and their socio-political contexts. We welcome comparative research into the activities and aspirations of various member states of the IFK, as well as into the international networks of film production and distribution that it facilitated. Our focus encompasses the national cinemas and film industries of the following countries in the 1930s and 40s: Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Yugoslavia; as well as the political, economic, or cultural histories of Film Europe in a broader perspective.

Focusing on the period 1933-45, submission topics might include (but are not limited to):

• Transnational collaborations and exchanges within the European film industry
  
• Censorship, regulation, and state intervention
  
• Experiences of filmmakers, actors, and technicians
  
• Film distribution and exhibition networks
  
• Propaganda and ideology in European cinema
  
• National cinemas and transnational influences
  
• Technological innovations and production constraints
  
• Star and celebrity culture

We plan to publish a selection of papers in a special issue of a leading academic journal or edited volume.

References

Kasten, J., Lang, F. & Stiasny, P. (eds) (2021), Ufa international. Ein deutscher Filmkonzern mit globalen Ambitionen. Edition Text+Kritik.

Maltby, R. & Higson, A. (eds) (1999), Film Europe and Film America : cinema, commerce and cultural exchange,1920-1939 (1999). University of Exeter Press.

Martin, B.G. (2011 rev.), ‘European Cinema for Europe!’ The International Film Chamber, 1935–42. In: Vande Winkel, R.., Welch, D. (eds), Cinema and the Swastika. Palgrave Macmillan.

Martin, B.G (2016), The Nazi-Fascist New Order for European Culture (2016). Harvard University Press.

Skopal, P. & Vande Winkel, R. (eds) (2021). Film Professionals in Nazi-Occupied Europe. Mediation Between the National-Socialist Cultural “New Order” and Local Structures, Springer.

Vande Winkel, R. & Welch, D. (eds) (2011 rev.). Cinema and the Swastika : the international expansion of Third Reich cinema, Palgrave Macmillan.

Practicalities

The workshop will be hosted by the German Historical Institute in Rome.

Registration is free and includes lunches, refreshments and a closing dinner. A research trip to the Cinecittà studios–visited by members of the International Film Chamber during their meeting in Rome in 1942–is also planned. Participants must cover their own costs of travel and accommodation; rooms at a nearby hotel will be available for a reduced price of 135 EUR per night (double-rooms only). We aim to offer a contribution toward travel and accommodation costs of scholars with limited or no institutional funding.

Organizing committee

• Emily Dreyfus (Film University Babelsberg, Germany)
  
• Maria Fritsche (NTNU, Norway)
  
• Benjamin Martin (Uppsala University, Sweden)
  
• Fabian Schmidt (Film University Babelsberg, Germany)
  
• Roel Vande Winkel (KU Leuven - LUCA School of Arts, Belgium)
  

This conference is sponsored and co-hosted by

• The German Historical Institute in Rome
  
• NOS-HS Workshop Series “Cinema, War and Citizenship at the Periphery. Cinemas and their audiences in the Nordic countries, 1935-1950”
  
• The Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam (ZZF)
  

Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi

Deadline: April 24, 2024

Editors:

Prof. Veronica Barassi (veronica.barassi@unisg.ch)

Dr. Philip Di Salvo (philip.disalvo@unisg.ch)

School of Humanities and Social Sciences

University of St. Gallen

Generative artificial intelligence tools and large language models are gaining a prominent space in our society. Probably for the first time in history, humans have now to relate and interact with technological systems capable of producing and generating new content and knowledge mimicking humans’ imagination, speech, and behaviors in ways that was not possible before. This new state of things brings inevitably profound consequences and potential sea changes for numerous social, scientific, and cultural fields raising epistemological, ethical, political economical and philosophical questions about the epistemologies of AI and the processes of knowledge production of these systems. The race for AI innovation is being framed with reference to the ‘superintelligence’ of our machines, their processing power, their ability to learn and generate knowledge. In public debate, AI technologies are admired for their powers, and feared for their threats. Yet, we are increasingly confronted with the fact that these machines make errors and mistakes, they are fallible and inaccurate, and they are often culturally biased. From Generative AI technologies that ‘hallucinate’ and invent facts to predictive policing technologies that lead to wrongful arrests, our world is quickly coming to terms with the fact that the AI we are building is not only astonishing and incredibly powerful, but often unable to understand the complexity of our human experience and our cultural worlds. Research has shown that AI errors and their problematic outcomes can’t be considered as mere coding glitches, but as the direct expression of the structural inequalities of our societies and they confront us with critical questions about our supposed anthropocentric position as knowledge-creators.

The aim of this special issue is to gather scholars coming from different fields of the social sciences and humanities to investigate how artificial intelligence systems are challenging epistemological assumptions in various societal areas and how the failures of such systems are impacting on knowledge creation and diffusion in their areas of interest. Overall, the special issue aims at overcoming dominant and hyped takes and narratives around AI and its supposed (super)powers, and critically reflect on how we can identify and learn how to coexist with the limitations of AI driven knowledge production.

Possible topics include, but are not restricted to:

• Impacts of AI Errors and Failures: Exploring the ways in which AI failures, inaccuracies and errors in AI impact human understanding, decision-making, and interpersonal relationships.
  
• Cultural Limitations of AI Knowledge: Investigating how AI systems intersect with cultural norms, values, and belief systems, and assessing the limits to cultural diversity and inclusivity of these technologies.
  
• Fake News and DeepFakes: Generative AI, democracy, disinformation, and the public sphere
  
• Social Construction of AI Truth: Investigating how AI systems construct and perpetuate particular truths, shaping public perceptions and influencing social narratives.
  
• Bias and Discrimination in AI: Analyzing how inherent biases in training data, algorithms, and decision-making processes contribute to perpetuating social inequalities and reinforcing existing power structures.
  

Submission procedure

We invite interested scholars to submit an abstract (300 words, 3 to 5 keywords) by 24th of April, 2024 to editors@annalsfondazioneluigieinaudi.it, veronica.barassi@unisg.ch; philip.disalvo@unisg.ch.

The issue’s editors will review the abstracts and send notifications of acceptance or rejection by the 8th of June, 2024.

The special issue will include up to 8 contributions among those received through the call for papers. Final papers (about 8000 words) will be due on 8th of December 2024. Please note that acceptance of abstracts does not necessarily imply acceptance of the paper for the special issue. For further information (including the aim and scope of the Journal), please refer to the Journal’s website.

Amelia Johns, Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández, Emma Baulch

We would like to let you know about our new book, out now with Polity Digital Media and Society Series. WhatsApp: From a one-to-one Messaging App to a Global Communication Platform traces the story of WhatsApp’s technical, social and commercial development. It charts the rise of WhatsApp through the 2010s, as chat apps became a primary mode of communication for many people across the world. In this context WhatsApp quickly outpaced rival messaging apps and developed into a default communication app for users around the world, particularly in the Global South. But after Meta’s purchase of WhatsApp in 2014, we argue that WhatsApp took another step in its evolution, as it was transformed from a simple, ‘gimmickless’ app into a global communication platform, with its business and broadcasting functions elevating WhatsApp above its former chat app status. We argue that understanding this development can shed light on the trajectory of Meta’s industrial development, and how digital economies and social media landscapes are evolving with the rise of ‘superapps’.

The book’s chapters chart this evolution across multiple dimensions, exploring how WhatsApp’s unique characteristics mediate new kinds of social and commercial transactions; how they pose new opportunities and challenges for platform regulation, civic participation and democracy; and how they give rise to new kinds of digital literacy as WhatsApp becomes integrated into everyday digital cultures across the globe.

Please see the table of contents: 

• Introduction
  
• Chapter One: Why WhatsApp Matters
  
• Chapter Two: Platform Biography
  
• Chapter Three: Everyday Uses of WhatsApp
  
• Chapter Four: WhatsApp Publics: Activism, News, Disorder
  
• Chapter Five: WhatsApp Business Model
  
• Chapter Six: WhatsApp Futures
  

The book is available for purchase at this link - https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=whatsapp-from-a-one-to-one-messaging-app-to-a-global-communication-platform--9781509550524

 - and I encourage you to recommend it to your universities and institutions. As the book has been written to be accessible to undergraduate students, we also recommend that key chapters be used in your course readings lists.

PLUS Salzburg

Planned start of employment: 1st October 2024

Expected duration of employment: limited to 6 years, can become permanent position upon fulfilment of individual qualification requirements

Extent of employment: 40 hours

Working hours: by agreement

Areas of responsibility:

Own scientific research and teaching, scientific support in research and teaching, as well as participation in administrative tasks in the field of media structure and platform research. Independent teaching of 4 semester hours per academic year.

The area of responsibility includes dealing with media structure research, in particular Austrian, European and global communication policy and internet governance (traditional mass media, digital platforms, alternative commons-based media and platforms) in a historical and geopolitical context. Candidates should have experience in the application and management of larger third-party funded projects, preferably EU research projects.

Employment requirements: completed doctoral studies in communication science and at least partially published doctoral thesis, at least one year of scientific experience abroad, relevant teaching experience; academic reputation, proven in particular by relevant publications and lectures, multilingualism in teaching and research (English and German required, other languages desirable).

Desirable additional qualifications:

Experience in university operations; clear vision of own future research profile; experience in organizing scientific conferences, digital skills in data management and with data visualization.

Desired personal qualities:

Enthusiasm for the subject area of media structures, democracy, media and platform policy and economics; experience in supervising students and junior academic staff; good communication and teamwork skills; ability to work under pressure and flexibly; enjoy imparting knowledge; strong interpersonal skills, especially in student support; ability to work in a goal-oriented, effective and solution-oriented manner.

In addition to a detailed curriculum vitae and a list of relevant publications (including the at least partially published doctoral thesis), the application documents should include the following:

a) Outline of academic and research achievements;

b) Description of experience and activities in teaching (including the supervision of junior researchers);

c) Concept for plans in research and teaching and for the contribution to knowledge

d) Concept for knowledge transfer and science management;

e) Presentation of social and other competencies.

September 23, 2024

Ljubljana (Slovenia)

Deadline: April 29, 2024

Dear ECREA,

we (RUSINFORM, https://www.rusinform.uni-passau.de/en/) are announcing a call for papers for the ECREA pre-conference "The Informational Influence of Autocracies Abroad", which will take place in Ljubljana on 23 September, before the main ECREA conference (https://ecrea2024ljubljana.eu/). You can find more information on our website: https://www.rusinform.uni-passau.de/en/ecrea24preconf/ 

Our pre-conference will examine the external propaganda of authoritarian regimes around the world, including Russia, China, Iran and Turkey, analysing the creators, content, strategies and audiences. It aims to juxtapose historical and contemporary techniques.

Proposals of 300-500 words, excluding references, should be submitted to serge.poliakoff@uni-passau.de with the subject line "ECREA 2024 Pre-Conference". All proposals should be in English. The deadline for submission of proposals is 3 April 2024. 

Submitted proposals will be notified of acceptance/rejection by 29 April 2024. There is no pre-conference fee. This is an offline event, so all accepted presenters will be required to present in person.

Best regards, 

Julia Kling

 August 30, 2024 - October 25, 2024

Jönköping University, Sweden/online

Call for applications to the PhD course Streaming media, contemporary society, and cultural memory at Jönköping University, Sweden. The course can be attended fully online via Zoom or in person at the university. 

The course is free of charge for PhD students from any country and it is held in English. 

The course has 7,5 ECTS and it starts on August 30, 2024, and finishes on October 25, 2024, with deadline of the final assignment in November 2024. In total, there will be seven seminars. This is the schedule: 

The course is taught by Professor in Media and Communication Studies Renira Gambarato and Associate Professor in History Johannes Heuman. 

Applications are due on May 31, 2024. You can find the course syllabus here: https://ju.se/en/research/doctoral-programmes/doctoral-programmes-at-the-school-of-education-and-communication/doctoral-courses.html and you can apply here: https://oas.ju.se/apply/admission/apply?type=DoctoralStudies  

Course description 

The Streaming media, contemporary society, and cultural memory is a seminar-based course about the ongoing transition to streaming media that has a large impact on contemporary culture and society. This course will analyze and discuss different approaches to streaming media narratives and its infrastructure. The focus will be on: 

• the technological and cultural development of streaming services such as HBO Max and Netflix 

• contemporary media theories in relation to streaming media 

• how memories of the past and societal issues, such as sexism and inequality, are represented and communicated through streaming media platforms 

The course is entirely based on different streaming series such as Squid Game, Black Mirror, Chernobyl, The Handmaid's Tale, and The Crown. 

If you have any questions about the course, please contact: 

Renira Gambarato: renira.gambarato@ju.se   

Johannes Heuman: johannes.heuman@sh.se  

The young scholar network of ECREA, YECREA, is calling for early-career communication researchers across Europe to apply for 10 vacant positions as YECREA representatives.

Deadline for applications: 15th March 2024

The vacant positions are in the following Sections Sections/TWG/Networks:

• Audience and Reception Studies
  
• Communication and Democracy
  
• Communication History
  
• Communication, Law and Policy
  
• Diaspora, Migration and the Media
  
• Ethics of Mediated Suffering
  
• Health Communication
  
• Political Communication
  
• TV Studies
  
• Visual Cultures
  

The young scholar (YECREA) representative in each Section/TWG/Network assists the managing team (consisting of a chair and two vice-chairs) in organising panels, symposia and/or conferences, and promoting the specific research area. Furthermore, the YECREA representative works to inform early-career scholars about events in the field and takes part in organising events, such as pre-conference workshops or meetings.

The ‘young’ in young scholar is not a measure of age, but of career progression. Thus, all scholars in non-tenure positions (e.g. PhDs and postdocs) are welcome to apply. It should be noted that the position as YECREA representatives is not paid. We encourage applications from those who are able to commit to the role for at least one year.

Applications should be no more than 500 words and contain the following information:

• A heading with your name and the specific position you are applying for
  
• Details on your current university, position and progression
  
• A brief description of your research
  
• A brief statement on your work’s connection to the specific section, TWG or network
  
• A brief statement on your aspirations for improving early-career research/experiences
  

Applications and questions should be sent to: yecreanetwork@gmail.com  

More information can be found here: http://yecrea.eu/2024/02/15/call-for-yecrea-representative-10-vacant-position/

YECREA Management Team

Sandra Banjac (chair), University of Groningen 

Phoebe Maares (vice-chair), University of Vienna 

Antonio Cuartero (vice-chair), University of Malaga

Birte Leonhardt (communications officer), University of Vienna

Email: yecreanetwork@gmail.com

Twitter: @yecrea_eu

Facebook: YECREA

September 12, 2024

 Utrecht University 

Deadline: May 1, 2024

An international workshop

Video-on-demand services (VODs) are often assumed by researchers to be black boxes, impenetrable to academic inquiry. Data on VOD catalogs, audiences, and usage can be challenging to source and may be commercially protected, leading to concerns about transparency and access (Wayne 2022).

Nonetheless, in recent years researchers have found many innovative workarounds to investigate VODs, publishing important studies of VOD libraries, recommendations, promotion, and use. This scattered but vibrant field of empirical VOD research now spans television and screen studies, media industry studies, platform studies, law, economics, computer science, and policy research. We see for instance advances in catalog research (Grece 2018), distant readings of VOD interfaces (Kelly 2021), reverse engineering of algorithms (Pakovic 2022), logging user interactions through browser extensions (Castro et al. 2021), and quantitative analysis of proprietary data sets from third-parties (Lotz et al. 2022). Such research is valuable for scholarly debate because it allows us, in the absence of industry disclosure, to better understand trends in production, distribution and consumption of content; and from a policy perspective, it is also vital to establish if local content quotas and requirements for prominence/visibility are being met.  

Topics of interest within VOD research include:

* What makes up the library of a VOD?

* How do libraries differ between services and across space and time?

* How is content circulated? (interfaces, recommendations and promotion)

* What do we know about usage of different VODs?

* How is usage shaped by prominence and discoverability within the interface?

* What VOD content is popular/culturally significant?

* How are data used by VODs for producing and distributing content?

* What can VOD research contribute to public policy debates?

We invite papers that propose, modify, elaborate, demonstrate or reflect on innovative methods for studying VODs, including empirical methods for data collection and/or critical and interpretive methods for data analysis. Our focus is on research methods for subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) and broadcaster video-on-demand (BVOD) services, rather than on social video platforms such as YouTube and Tiktok. 

Submission details:

Abstracts of 500 words are due by 1 May 2024 along with a 100 word bio and should be sent to Karin van Es (K.F.vanEs@uu.nl) and Ramon Lobato (ramon.lobato@rmit.edu.au). 

Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 1 June, and accepted authors will be invited to submit extended abstracts of 2,000 words by 5 September. The workshop will be held on 12 September at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. A special journal issue is planned following the workshop. We also welcome expressions of interest from scholars who cannot attend the workshop but would like to be considered for the special issue. Please feel free to reach out to the organisers by email.

References

Castro D, Rigby J, Cabral D and Nisi V (2021) The Binge-watcher’s Journey: Investigating Motivations, Contexts, and Affective States Surrounding Netflix Viewing. Convergence 27 (1): 3-20.

Grece, Christian (2018) Films in VOD catalogues – Origin, Circulation and Age. Strasbourg: European Audiovisual Observatory. 

Kelly JP (2021). ‘Recommended for you’: A Distant Reading of BBC iPlayer. Critical Studies in Television, 16(3), 264-285

Lotz A, Eklund O and Suroka S (2022) Netflix, Library Analysis, and Globalization: Rethinking Mass Media Flows. Journal of Communication 72 (4): 511–521.

Pajkovic N (2022) Algorithms and Taste-making: Exposing the Netflix Recommender System’s Operational Logics. Convergence 28 (1): 214–235

Wayne ML (2022) Netflix Audience Data, Streaming Industry Discourse, and the Emerging Realities of ‘Popular’ Television. Media, Culture & Society 44 (2): 193–20.

Media & Journalismo (Vol. 24 N.º 45)

Deadline: March 15, 2024

Editors: 

Maria José Brites - Universidade Lusófona, CICANT; maria.jose.brites@ulusofona.pt

Teresa Sofia Castro - Universidade Lusófona, CICANT; teresa.sofia.castro@ulusofona.pt

Paloma Contreras-Pulido - Universidade Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR); paloma.contreras@unir.net

Topics:

• Children, youth, and news
  
• Children, youth, and contexts of digital citizenship
  

Subtopics:

• Algorithms and datafication
  
• Audiences and news
  
• Socialisation, families, and peer influence
  
• News literacies
  
• Information disorders
  
• News resistance and avoidance
  
• Theoretical reflection and future perspectives of the field
  
• Methodological discussions
  
• Participatory media
  
• Decolonization of the field
  
• Glocal news contexts
  
• Glocal digital citizenship contexts
  

In this special issue, we aim to capture theoretical and empirical reflections that shed light on how, why, and where young people follow, understand and express what is currently happening in the world in the context of digital citizenship and information disorders (Wardle & Derakhshan, 2017). The COVID-19 pandemic and recent wars accelerated a torrent of fake news and other information disorders (Galan et al., 2019, Frau-Meigs et al, 2017), in which social media platforms revealed underlying ambivalences. This is why it is so pressing to consider diverse approaches in the investigation that identifies what, how and where young people from diverse contexts and geographies propose their views and expressions of what is happening in the world. By anticipating normative and/or decolonised definitions of news, we aim to apprehend research that assesses themes related with youth voices and views of the world, their (dis)connection with news and contexts of digital citizenship.

The research continually points to a shift from the traditional journalism environments to new opportunities for consumption and production (Clark and Marchi, 2017), fostering participative processes. By proposing the concept of “connective journalism”, Clark and Marchi (2017) highlight the need for sharing, having a self-view of the news stories, and considering making their stories. They also note a disruption between young audiences' needs and news outlets.

What are the social environments where these processes are grounded? Even if the peer group influence has an impact, family, and in particular parents, are at the centre of the socialisation process for seeking news and different views of the world (Brites et al., 2017; Edgerly et al, 2018a; Lemish, 2007; Silveira, 2019), including contexts for operating digital devices (Edgerly et al, 2018a). Self-socialization is found in other studies regarding youth information consumption: incidental and leisure (Boczkowski et al, 2018) and news avoidance and resistance (Brites e Ponte, 2018; Edgerly et al, 2018b).

These sociocultural environments pose additional challenges to news brands and the production of stories that fit young people’s interests and expectations. It is thus imperative to reflect on these timely issues, namely considering how young people regard and deal with algorithms (Swart, 2021), algorithmic literacy, and what are the implications for information selection and consumption processes in their everyday lives, and even to observe how in some cases this content is used for participatory, prosocial and citizen purposes, shaping initiatives that promote social change.

This special issue [under the project Youth, News and Digital Citizenship - YouNDigital (PTDC/COM-OUT/0243/2021); https://youndigital.com] invites articles that theoretically and/or empirically tackle these and other dimensions, considering youth layers in terms of social, educational, gender, and cultural diversity, which demands to be studied and analysed within their relationship with digital media, news, platforms, and digital citizenship.

IMPORTANT DATES

Deadline for submitting articles: March 15, 2024

Review process: March-June 2024

Editors' decision: July 2024

Expected publication date: October 2024

Authors must indicate the special issue to which they are submitting the article.

Revista Media & Jornalismo (RMJ) is an open-access peer-reviewed scientific journal that operates in a double-blind review process and is indexed in Scopus. Each submitted work will be distributed to two reviewers previously invited to evaluate it, according to academic quality, originality, and relevance to the objectives and scope of the theme of this edition of the journal.

Articles can be submitted in English, Spanish, or Portuguese.

Manuscripts must be submitted through the journal's website (https://impactum-journals.uc.pt/mj). When accessing RMJ for the first time, you must register to be able to submit your article and accompany it throughout the editorial process. Consult the Instructions for Authors and Conditions for Submission.

For more information, contact: patriciacontreiras@fcsh.unl.pt

November 5-7, 2024​

Zagreb, Croatia

Deadline: June 15, 2024

The 15th Annual International Small Cinemas Conference is organized by the Department for Culture and Communication, Institute for Development, and International Relations (IRMO), Zagreb, Croatia, in partnership with the Industry Program of the Zagreb Film Festival (ZFF).  

Keynote lecturer: Katharine Sarikakis, University of Vienna 

Conference theme: 

In recent years, the film industry has globally faced a series of transformations at the level of production, distribution, and consumption. The rise of streaming services caused the most significant changes. Additionally, the audio-visual (AV) industry faced a crisis due to restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. In North America, and currently in India, we have seen screenwriters and actors strike to oppose changes. But what are the implications of present changes on film industries, and what is their impact on big production markets compared to small cinemas? This conference edition will discuss the main challenges of film production and distribution in so-called ‘small countries’ compared to ‘big markets.’ It will focus on public policy responses to dynamic changes in the audio-visual field, examine viable and sustainable business models, and consider how to ensure cultural diversity at global and local levels. What is the available research data revealing about patterns in audio-visual content consumption, and how are small markets reaching local and international audiences? What public policy instruments are at our disposal to initiate a dialogue between controversial production practices by worldwide corporate streaming services and local audio-visual industries? How does this affect small markets in comparison to larger ones? How are the working conditions of small-market film workers changing when entering global service productions? What are the economic and aesthetic pressures on local productions in small film industries? Among all the mentioned issues, which ones foster or impede the success of films from small-market countries? And what is the meaning of success in the given context: does popularity equal quality? 

Topics for discussion may include, but are not limited to: 

• film audience consumption habits in small markets 
  
• small market distribution patterns and means of reaching local and global audiences 
  
• AV festivals ecosystems and their role in enhancing diversity 
  
• the relationship between public policy instruments and production practices of global 
  
• corporate streaming services in small countries  
  
• the impact of investment obligations for streamers in small and larger markets 
  
• the influence of AI on film production and distribution 
  
• the unionization and working conditions of film workers in national markets  
  
• the economic pressures on local productions in small film industries 
  
• the impact of COVID-19 on different film ecosystems: production, distribution, and consumption. 
  

This interdisciplinary conference invites contributions from film, media and cultural studies, media economics, sociology of media and communication, sociology of culture, cultural sociology, cultural and media policy research, etc.  

Submissions should include the title, author(s), institutional affiliation, an abstract of up to 250 words and a short bio of the presenter(s). We welcome pre-constituted panels with a maximum of three presentations. Panel abstract submissions should be up to 600 words, describing the role of each presenter within the panel. Please submit your abstract via the online form available at the following link.  

Submission deadline: June 15, 2024. ​

Confirmation of acceptance: July 12,,2024. 

The conference is aimed at academics, policymakers and film industry professionals. It will include a keynote lecture, paper presentations, roundtables, and screenings, and it will be part of the Industry Program of the Zagreb Film Festival Program (ZFF). Held on November 4-10, 2024, the festival will allow participants to delve into the film program and also network with industry representatives.  

The registration fee is 80EUR or 50EUR for PhD students.  

For additional information, please contact the conference organizers at smallcinemas2024@irmo.hr or visit the conference website: https://smallcinemas2024.irmo.hr   

The conference is part of the CresCine project ‘Increasing the international competitiveness of the film industry in small European markets’ (no. 101094988) supported by the Horizon Europe programme of the European Union. For more information about the project, please visit: www.crescine.eu